Prediction Markets

January 05, 2013

I Know What She Was Thinking...

Via Glenn we see a story about a woman who, cornered by a home intruder, emptied her .38 revolver into him. The aftermath will come as a shock to the gun controllers:

"The perpetrator opens that door. Of course, at that time he's staring
at her, her two children and a .38 revolver," Chapman told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh.

The
woman then shot him five times, but he survived, Chapman said. He said
the woman ran out of bullets but threatened to shoot the intruder if he
moved.

"She's standing over him, and she realizes she's fired all
six rounds. And the guy's telling her to quit shooting," Chapman said.

I know what she was thinking - in all the excitment, had she fired six shots or only five? I guess the punk was feeling lucky.

The
woman ran to a neighbor's home with her children. The intruder
attempted to flee in his car but crashed into a wooded area and
collapsed in a nearby driveway, Chapman said.

The guy was shot five times and had enough gas to get up and get in his car? Where did she hit him?

Deputies arrested 32-year-old Atlanta resident Paul Slater in connection
with the crime. Chapman said they found him on the ground saying, "Help
me. I'm close to dying." Slater was taken to Gwinnett Medical Center
for treatment. Chapman said Slater was shot in the face and neck.

...

Channel 2’s Amy Napier Viteri learned from Chapman late Friday night
that slater has been placed on a ventilator and suffers from punctured
lungs, a punctured liver and a punctured stomach.

He said if Slater survives the night, doctors will try to operate in the morning to repair the damage.

Chapman said Slater has four exit wounds.

Lungs, liver, stomach? Seems like center-mass shooting to me. Well, she may have wounded him mortally and she did manage to run off with her kids, but the fight-stopping ability of five slugs from a .38 isn't what some of us might have expected. That said, exit wounds suggest she wasn't using classichome-defense expanding rounds.

Still, she had a plausible defensive plan (hide!), a weapon and the composure to use it, she hit with most of her shots, and she and her kids are safe and the bad guy is down. Maybe the win could have been prettier, but it sure beats losing.

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What an inspiring story especially for journalists in Westchester County. To bad the Atlanta Journal-Constitution didn't have the same smarts to publish the list of legal gun owners in Gwinnett County then Slater wouldn't look like Fearless Fosdick today.

In a hypothetical case, James Madison makes clear the founders understood that individual citizens with their own firearms could form a militia to counterbalance federal overreach.

Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence.

Those who diminish individual firearms rights and responsibilities should retire in defeat. And if they persist, ridicule and laughter are in order.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “When some politician starts pontificating that no one needs more than a 10 round clip capacity (or 5, or 3) this is the story that should be shoved in their faces. She fired 6 shots, put 5 in the attacker and he was still kicking. What if there had been multiple attackers. Then that 30 round clip suddenly seems appropriate.”

I am an elector in the 7th District of the State of Georgia and we met in your office on August 17th, 2012 to discuss the eligibility of Barack Obama and my case 2012CV211528 on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court:

During our meeting I pointed out that at no time did Barack Obama ever enter into the court record one scintilla of evidence establishing his eligibility throughout the course of my ballot challenge. You referred to correspondence from Dr. Onaka the Registrar for the State of Hawaii to Ken Bennett, the Secretary of State of Arizona as a basis for your “belief” of eligibility; even though that same correspondence was completely absent a date of birth or the names of the parents.

Attached is new information that was not available at the time of our meeting:..."

--but the fight-stopping ability of five slugs from a .38 isn't what some of us might have expected--

It is common if only soft tissue has been hit for a gunshot recipient to take some time to even know they've been shot, due presumably to the body's shock defenses; Reagan for instance didn't know he had a 22 slug right next to his heart.
And if you don't hit the brain or the spinal cord a gunshot recipient can travel a very long way. Just ask a guy who has trailed a gutshot deer or some guy who still walks with a limp after putting four or five 458 Winchester rounds into a Cape Buffalo's chest.

That thug was arrested for the SEVENTH time last February (that time for Battery), but released in August - no further information given on that.

This break-in occurred approximately 1pm - no time was given for when the police arrived.

So in addition to the whole "stopping power" ballistics and magazine size topic, here we have also a great illustration of two other issues:
1) when seconds count, the police are only minutes away and
2) the police not only are not responsible for protecting the individual from potential criminals - they are not able to protect the individual from known criminals.

The famous 1986 FBI shootout in Miami led to the 10mm and then the .40 S&W being developed and adopted as the FBI's round of choice, due to the inferior stopping power of the .38 Special in particular.

In that shootout, the cops outnumbered the gunmen 8 to 2, and fired around 100 rounds to kill them. One woman with a 6-shooter obviously would have been dead meat. But who needs a 30-round magazine?

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards.

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger.

"They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday.

happened just up the road from here . there have been several day time breakins round these parts lately as crooks look for homes where no one is home . she didn't answer the door so he assumed the house was empty . guess that makes him a holey ass for assuming such a thing .

I hit a cape buffalo four times with a .375 H&H Magnum and he still fled. Followed his blood trail and came upon him in a clearing. He was lying down, facing away from me, and he turned his head and saw me and started to get up and turn around to charge. The fifth shot finally killed him. I am looking at his head as I type.

stoopit criminals . Walton and Gwinnett counties went for Romney by something like 65-35. plus, the gun ranges here host many many women's birthday parties . went to one myself not too long ago . shoulda been a clue but no one ever accused a thief democrat of logic .

"Host Hoppy Kercheval asked Senator Manchin if he will support California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s proposed bill to reinstate the ban on assault weapons. That ban first took effect in 1994 and expired in 2004.

"'I’m not supporting a ban on anything. I’m supporting a conversation on everything,' Senator Manchin said."

add to herb's view of a worldwide economic "supersonic boom" the spread of online international education the competition for the top will grow ever harder. If your kids are lollling around watching MTV will the kids in India and China are working their butts off, do not expect they will coast to the top.

The test today, the difference in the shot pattern of a 410 shotgun an a 410 pistol, with a 6.5 inch barrel.

30 feet, everything equal, the shotgun pattern was about 1.5 inch's wide. Would leave a large hole. The "Judges" pattern exceeded the satellite dish. Large number of #8 shots hit the dish..would cause major damage..

To carry on a conversation from a dead thread: Mel, I think we look for the same thing in music but look in different places for it. A guy has been playing music at our weekly basketball games by running his iTunes on his PC though a guitar amp(!!). Usually he plays classic soul but today he was playing some Blue Note guitar jazz. I asked him "Is that Grant Green" and he almost fell over that anybody recognized it (it's not exactly a large universe to choose from and I was positive it wasn't Wes Montgomery).

We started talking about music and he hasn't had the light come on regarding Monk yet. I'm gonna keep pounding on him until either it does or I realize that it just ain't happening (I remember exactly when it happened for me: I was listening to "The Black Lion Sessions" [recorded when Monk was in a nut house] and wondering how Blakey was able to play rhythm for it when I realized he was just keeping a steady beat which the piano was dancing around. It all made sense after that).

Maybe one day I'll try to run the gauntlet to get a firearm license in DC and travel out to Va so Janet can teach me how to shoot. Of course, I'll probably have to roll bandages or so some other do good project to win her over.

By virtue of being locked out of the U.S. cable TV market for so long (mostly at the behest of the George W. Bush administration), Al-Jazeera learned to embrace the Internet in ways that have transformed it into one of the most modern, progressive video news organizations in the world. Take Al-Jazeera’s The Stream, for example. When it launched in 2011, Fast Company lauded it as ”the most aggressive integration of social media into a live news program to date.” In just the first few days of 2013, The Stream has fostered discussions around the gang rape tragedy in New Delhi and political developments in Egypt and Syria. Far from being a mouthpiece of Arab radicalism, as was originally feared when it first expanded to the U.S., Al-Jazeera English has emerged as a supporter of the democratic uprisings of the Arab Spring. Along the way, it has been picking up journalism awards for its investigative reporting as well as compliments from influential U.S. news organizations.

Clarice, he predicts a worldwide boom as the pockets of poverty diminish and the middle class expands everywhere demanding more goods and services.

Herb has been working on this idea for a year or more. What I like about it is that he thinks like a scientist: look at all the data and then create hypotheses that fits the data. Don't prejudge what might be going on and then sift the data to fit.

Clarice. While you are finding your way through the maze of regulations, you should go to one of the many firing ranges located outside of the Metro area an do some renting of weapons an do some practice firing..

I do not recall in your past writings that you have ever mentioned the use of any type of weapon..or if you have in the past it has been well in the past..Sometimes just going out and do some "plinking". satisfies the desire..

Out here in the fly over area, not a lot of restrictions apply..

For those of you within the restricted area, if you so desire you are welcome to use my back yard anytime.

Monk at work is something else. I can see someone steeped in soul might have a hard time making the leap to structured, atonal chords. I'd almost use Weather Report as the work around, especially some of Shorter's compositions, like on Heavy Weather, and then surprise him with Birdland on that album. I saw Buddy Rich's band play an arrangement of it, outdoors at Ravinia before he passed away. No amps needed. BOOM!

My appeal to larger, modern big band works, and why I love certain classical pieces, is the larger, iterative structure of the themes. Sort of like phyllo pastry, layer upon layer, and it only works when they're together.

When I was working on a temporary assignment at our office in Jo'burg SA back in the early 90's I had a driver who lived near a Safari Park out toward Pretoria. One day he called in to say he would be late since his car had been totalled by a Cape Buffalo that had got loose, crossed the highway and was playing bumper cars with the traffic. His was not the only one that got totalled that day:)

There was a small trickle of SA railroaders that came to Amtrak. I've worked with several of them. During a safety training session several years ago, one of them talked about a track guy that went out check on a problem. Driving one of their 'utes' he was confronted by a lion that proceeded to 'get um' through the little sliding back window of the cab. That was the end of anyone working solo on the property.

Yeah, South African rail guys are good especially on narrow gauge and electrified systems. We used them in the UK to supplement our technical teams in cantenary design.

One thing about South Africa I learned is that most of the native Africans (black) are urbanized and have a huge fear of the "bush". Most of them cringe when you talk about seeing a Lion or any other major predator. They rather drink beer and talk about Rugby.

Has anyone seen any info about whether the perp survived? There were conflicting news reports, and it was not at all clear to me how gravely he was injured.

Either way, it points up that only five/six rounds is not enough to protect yourself from some bad guys, and also that you could have a bad guy already fatally shot who is still a danger to you in the time between when he is shot and when he dies. So, yes, overkill is necessary.

Fled the immediate scene (house) on foot. Tried to drive away in his vehicle (IIRC an SUV) but crashed into a tree. Then collapsed on a neighbors driveway.
Last I heard was in the hospital with a punctured lung, punctured liver, and punctured stomach.
One press report stated that he was hit multiple times in the face, but according to the police they found a bunch of his teeth at the shooting scene so he may have gotten the old cheek-to-cheek transverse dental plan.

Same people who pay if he gets sent to prison and then needs a liver transplant or heart surgery later. Though at least Georgia isn't likely to make the public pay for a sex change operation if he decided he would prefer to be a girl after he gets sent to prison for life.

Oh, you'll like this story, Have Blue. It's one in which an observant nurse's aide made the diagnosis, well, sort of. A thirtysomething male prisoner, working as a barber, felt heart palpitations such as to make him dizzy, and went to the clinic. His pulse was irregular and his cardiogram was ugly.

He wasn't reticent about saying what he thought the problem was. His occupation gave him specialized knowledge with which he pursued his avocation, which was injecting meth into a carotid artery. He particularly enjoyed the effect he'd feel first in one half of his brain, echoed a while later in the other half. He was used to having palpitations with these flights of fancy, but he swore he hadn't been injecting for days. The nurse's aide, at the foot of the gurney announced 'He's lying!', and showed what looked like fresh injection marks between his toes.

Well, these turned out to be tiny bacterial emboli, trapped in the end of the arteries, and coming from his heart valves. He had replacement for them, and lengthy treatment for septic embolic strokes, too.

You can guess the price, and who paid for the care. He gave a lot of people a haircut.
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